In an age when consumers can buy mailing labels from a computer printer and stamps come forth from vending machines, the role of the traditional post office is fading. One tiny outpost of the U.S. Postal Service in suburban Roanoke County may be on the verge of extinction.

Evolution appears to be essential if the Roanoke Sugar Loaf Station is to survive. It's an anachronism, staffed by clerks in their 70s and struggling along without so much as a postage meter. Here, a friendly attendant still affixes stamps to cartons and packages. Obscure in the extreme, Sugar Loaf Station, which takes its name from a nearby mountain, isn't listed on the federal government's official post office locator Web site.

There isn't even an exterior sign to mark the entrance to this slow-paced blast from the past in the Glen Heather Square shopping center in the Oak Grove area on Electric Road.

But loyal customers, who have learned of its existence by word of mouth, know the way.

"I like it because it's small. You can walk in, walk out without having to wait in a long line," customer Christine Martin of Salem said.

The main looming danger to Sugar Loaf Station is, of all things, the U.S. Postal Service's sudden desire to put the place on the map. "It definitely needs a sign," said Charlene Yeagley, coordinator relations manager for the Postal Service in Roanoke. The Postal Service plans to install one soon and mail the 25,000 to 30,000 closest homes and businesses a reminder that Sugar Loaf Station is there.

Of course, that could mean more business, and, ironically, Sugar Loaf Station's lead clerk, Ralph Ratliff, fears the faster pace could be its undoing.

Sugar Loaf's services are less extensive than a main post office with its P.O. boxes and selection of mailing containers. It isn't a full-fledged post office but, rather, a contract postal facility owned by a private businessperson -- in this case, Ratliff's son, Rodney, who could not be reached for comment.

About 3,000 contract postal units operate in the United States, up from 2,500 in 2002, each designed to plug a gap in service availability. Most are inside another business, such as a hardware store, making the stand-alone Sugar Loaf Station an anomaly.

Contract post offices aren't actually part of the vast independent federal agency that makes up the U.S. Postal Service. Instead, they represent a sort of adjunct arm, affiliated with a sort of freelance designation and operated independently on a for-profit basis. But unlike the postal service, which raises stamp prices and other rates to cover rising costs, contractors can't do that. Sugar Loaf Station is like a goldfish bound by the routine feeding schedule of its compensation contract, circling in the confines of a tank while the groupers at the postal service feed in the ocean of American wealth.

Ralph Ratliff, a retired postal service employee, said the business depends on the fee it collects from the government to offer postal services to the public. That fee, which isn't made public, is inadequate, he said. With the station's profit margin already stretched "shoestring" thin, Ralph Ratliff said, it's simply beyond the financial capability of the post office to handle any more customers because it would take a fourth employee to maintain quality service. And there's no money in the Sugar Loaf Station budget to boost payroll, he said.

So if the new sign draws a crowd, that could spell the end, he said.

"We'd probably have to close because they won't give us more money to operate," Ratliff said.

Sugar Loaf Station was far under the Postal Service's radar until late last year. That's when a new Roanoke postmaster, John Keller, took over and began oversight of postal facilities under his supervision.

Postal officials, now showing interest in Sugar Loaf, examined its performance and found it to be bringing in less money by the year -- thus falling below contract requirements on which its compensation is based. The decision was made to start with a sign.

The last time a contract postal facility in the Roanoke Valley was on the ropes was in 2003 when federal authorities announced that the postal center at the Wonder Drug Pharmacy in Southeast Roanoke wasn't generating enough revenue. The Postal Service closed it in 2003.

"There are no plans to shut the [Sugar Loaf] facility down," Postal Service spokesman Victor Dubina said.

Neither is a pay raise for Rodney Ratliff in the current plans. The Sugar Loaf Station will have to crank out more postal services, and the Postal Service is willing to help, but the patience of federal officials is not unlimited, he said.

"It's an expense in our budget, and we want to make sure we're maximizing those dollars and getting a good ROI [return on investment]," postmaster Keller said.

Either side can break the contract with 60 days' notice. Closing Sugar Loaf Station wouldn't prevent postal officials from signing a deal with a new operator in that or another location.

Some Sugar Loaf-area residents say they value postal services in that location for convenience. One reason is that the nearest full-fledged post office, the Cave Spring facility, though only a mile and a half to the south, has a reputation for customer lines and more vehicle traffic.

By comparison, Sugar Loaf's charm is not only its location, but the very lack of hustle and bustle that its lead clerk fears. Endorsing Sugar Loaf, Roanoke County resident Gerald Smalley said, "It happens to be handy for me."

When the new sign goes up and more people discover Sugar Loaf Station, that's when Ratliff worries about the potential for lines and delays in a space that perhaps could hold five to 10 people. Ratliff said Sugar Loaf Station still processes mail the way he did when he started as a U.S. postal clerk in 1957. And he can stamp a package with all the dexterity expected of a veteran post office clerk, pulling stamps from a large folder with worn denomination tabs.

A postal meter would dramatically speed up mail intake, Ratliff said, possibly enough to handle what lies ahead without more personnel. The electronic machine prints a single, adhesive strip of postal currency that sticks fast to a package without any need to hunt down the proper postage combination and plaster the stamps in the top right corner.

But revenue is an obstacle here, again. Sugar Loaf isn't meeting a general threshold of $200,000 in annual revenue to qualify for the postal service to give it a meter, Keller said.

So change appears inevitable. Leaving their post office unmarked is no longer an option for Ralph and Rodney Ratliff. The sign is coming, and, like it or not, Sugar Loaf Station will be tested to see if it can advance from pleasing customers to satisfying postal officialdom, too.